With the ability to provide an extremely smooth flow rate, the compact pump is only 23 cm wide, making it ideal for in-lab use. Furthermore, the replacement of components such as valves, syringes or pressure sensors is extremely quick and easy, without the need for any tools. Produced to the highest specifications, flow rate and volume can easily be controlled using the intuitive front panel, or via the Asia PC software. The PTFE pressure sensor ensures safe operation by automatically stopping the pumps in the case of over pressure.

Specifically designed for use with the Asia Syringe Pump, the Asia Pressurized Input Store enables four reagents to be stored under an inert gas atmosphere. As a result, an ultra-smooth flow is delivered due to the 1 bar pressure significantly reducing the formation of gas bubbles.

For more information about the new Asia Syringe Pump, or any of Syrris’s flow chemistry products (Africa and FRX), please visit www.syrris.com.

The company has completed new shipments of ScreenTape systems to ESBATech, Crucell, Symphogen, Bayer Healthcare and multiple systems to Novartis Basel.

‘We are delighted that so many premier bio-pharmaceutical companies are adding ScreenTape to their protein and antibody production workflows,’ commented Richard Rowling from Lab901. ‘The time savings and efficiency gains of completing SDS-PAGE and full analysis within minutes instead of hours, seems to be particularly important to our customers who are trying to achieve more with fewer resources,’ he added.

Lab901 recently expanded the application base for protein ScreenTape to ‘At-line’ monitoring of monoclonal antibody production and presented at the PepTalk meeting in San Diego.

‘We’ve experienced a strong demand for our protein ScreenTape system in Europe and are now generating a lot of interest in the US,’ said Joel Fearnley (CEO, Lab901). ‘The time is right to start selling ScreenTape to our biggest potential market in North America.’

The protein ScreenTape systems offer fully automated SDS-PAGE and analysis in under 1 minute per sample. Users are provided with a gel image, electropherogram and information such as molecular weight, percentage purity and quantity in a fraction of the time needed when using traditional pre-cast gel methods. Unused lanes on ScreenTape can be used for subsequent experiments making the system more cost-effective than pre-cast gels or micro-fluidic chips.

Information about ScreenTape P200 product is now available on the recently updated Lab901 website www.lab901.com.

FieldStere V2.0 is the first in Cresset’s new generation of ‘cloud enabled’ applications, which support parallel, distributed computing by default. This brings real-time assessment of new directions for medicinal chemistry, as well as the patentability and in-licensing potential of drug candidates, a step closer. FieldStere can also be run as a traditional desktop application, allowing users without a large computing infrastructure to benefit from the same functionality.

“By re-engineering the FieldStere concept, we have made it easier to deploy in a corporate distributed computing or workflow environment, as well as making it faster, more memory efficient and more accurate” commented Tim Cheeseright, Products Director at Cresset.

FieldStere V2.0 introduces more flexible licensing and new features to improve productivity. A command line interface supports scripting and workflow systems, while FieldStere databases now have automatic fragment de-duplication and time-stamping to support results tracking in ELN & patent applications. New ‘Bio-Isostere Factor’ scores help to clearly differentiate the effect of replacement moieties, and potentially unstable chemistries are now automatically highlighted in the results table. FieldStere also enables results to be exported as PDFs and copied in 2D or 3D for pasting into drawing applications or presentations.

For further information, please visit www.cresset-group.com

All EP Scientific custom cleaning services and packaging are processed in the company’s certified class 100/10 cleanroom facilities with full traceability and GMP compliant processes. With over 20 years of expertise, the company offers a broad array of proprietary cleaning methods for pharmaceutical packaging, drug discovery and chemical/petrochemical production. Services include: low particle cleaning; depyrogenation; chemical cleaning for trace analysis; nuclease-free cleaning and certification; custom sterilization; surface modification services; as well as custom packaging services.

A custom cleaning specification sheet is available for fast and convenient order processing. Customers can make their custom cleaning application easy and routine by simply completing and submitting their order online.

For more information on EP Scientific custom cleaning services visit www.epscientific.com.

EP Scientific is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science.

Highest specification objectives

This superior multi-laser independent beam path technology, combined with new TIRFM objectives covering the broadest selection available, ensures that cell^TIRF delivers a new level of sensitivity and precision in multi-colour TIRFM. Olympus offers 6 dedicated TIRFM objectives of exceptional optical quality, including the highest resolution available with a numerical aperture of 1.69 NA, as well as the highest magnification at 150x (1.45 NA). This means that TIRFM investigations can be carried out with penetration depths down to 40 nm.

Newly available objectives offering increased numerical apertures of 1.49 at 100x and 60x magnification ensure excellent angle flexibility, enabling small penetration depths. This is highly advantageous for cell membrane studies, and also provides better signal to noise ratios. Exceptional software integration and mechanics along with these objectives mean that users can precisely and automatically adjust laser penetration with 1 nm accuracy at the click of a button. This is possible as cell^TIRF is fully integrated into the xcellence real time imaging system with automatic device configuration via ODB (Olympus Data Bus), enabling fast switching and precise control of hardware, including the TIRF condenser and laser lines.

Intelligent & intuitive TIRF control

Such is the intelligence and intuitiveness of cell^TIRF enabled by the xcellence software, just one button is required to switch between critical angle, defined penetration depth and laser widefield illumination. Highly inclined and laminated optical (HILO) sheet imaging is also enabled due to the XY-adjustable field stops for every laser beam. Furthermore, fine adjustment is possible very simply via the mouse wheel or keyboard, meaning screwdriver adjustments are a thing of the past! Complete integration within the Experiment Manager, a graphical experiment construction tool also enables specialised TIRFM commands for sophisticated applications, such as experiments with varying penetration depths combined with widefield and confocal microscopy.

Flexibility & value

The optics knowledge of Olympus also allows cell^TIRF to be used in combination with other techniques to provide exceptional value for money. The xcellence system provides real time live cell fluorescence imaging and can also accommodate the cell^FRAP photo control and cell^SPIN laser based spinning disk confocal modules. Finally, the system is fully compatible with most microscope tables, image-splitters, Piezo drives and AFM stages.

www.microscopy.olympus.eu

The new Nordlund Centre, based in the prestigious Biopolis hub in Singapore, is headed by Professor Pär Nordlund, a renowned structural biologist and visiting professor from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Through this comparative study, the Nordlund team will establish a platform for the efficient generation of chemical probes using fragment-based methods. The six- to nine-month study will guide researchers and the entire industry on the preferred fragment screening technique for several protein classes.

The study includes seven protein classes, including HsP90. The group will assess fragment binding in each protein class using a range of standard techniques, including ITC, NMR, SPR, DSF and X-ray crystallography.

“We selected the Maybridge Fragment library as a benchmark for our comparative study as it is a globally renowned and industry recognised set of diverse and high-quality compounds,” said Dr. Andreas Larsson, project leader within the Nordlund group. “Of particular interest to us was the validated aqueous solubility data provided by Maybridge scientists, where solubility checks up to five mMol in aqueous phosphate buffer have been measured.”

The Nordlund team features individuals from both academia and the pharmaceutical industry with a broad range of competencies. In addition to fragment-based lead generation, these competencies include: structural biology, high-throughput protein production and crystallography, membrane protein production and biophysical characterisation. Such competencies, in addition to the exceptional protein production facilities at NTU, make this an ideal group for undertaking such a broad-reaching comparative study.

This study also demonstrates the growing interest in fragment-based lead design (FBLD) as a means of accelerating many drug design programmes by complementing more traditional high-throughput or low-content assay screening methods. The Maybridge Ro3 500 Fragment Library, selected from the original Maybridge “Rule-of-Three” (Ro3) compliant set, is designed to be a convenient, cost-effective entry point to fragment screening.

For further information, please visit www.maybridge.com

Maybridge is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science.

The meeting will include application case studies from Merck, Harvard Medical School, GNF, BellBrook Labs and Cell Signalling Technologies alongside software tutorials and an open discussion session. Attendees are invited to bring along their questions about the Acumen software as well as files and plates for review with the TTP LabTech Applications Support team whilst at the meeting.

There is no charge to attend the Acumen User Group Meeting, but space is limited. To reserve your seat, please contact Laura Callahan at acumen_ugm@ttplabtech.com. Please enquire about special room rates available at the Marriott Boston Cambridge Hotel when registering for the event.

For more information about TTP LabTech and the Acumen eX3 please visit: www.ttplabtech.com.

McHENRY, MD: The International Serum Industry Association (the “ISIA”) is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the 5th Annual General Meeting in Munich on 25th and 26th March 2010 (“AGM”), to coincide with Analytica 2010. Interested individuals are invited to attend the ISIA AGM as guests to discover how the ISIA is assisting the industry with current EU legislation, USDA registration issues and other critical issues.

Representatives from key organizations will be on hand to discuss agenda items, which will include the current status of the implementation documents for the new animal by-products legislation and its impact on BioIndustry, the new US Pharmacopeia chapter being developed on fetal bovine serum, and plant registration in the USA for materials to be exported to the EU. Details of the AGM are available on the ISIA website www.serumindustry.org or by contacting the ISIA Secretary, Jenny Murray, on +44 1444 250010 or jennymurray@seralab.co.uk

The role of the ISIA is to establish, promote and assure compliance with uncompromised standards of excellence and ethics in the business practices of the global animal serum supply industry. The primary focus is on the topics of safety and safe use of serum through proper origin traceability from origin to endpoint and on truth in labeling, together with appropriate standardization and oversight. The ISIA also works to educate stakeholders on the scientific foundation of the safe use of serum.
For more information about ISIA visit www.serumindustry.org

Calibrating air samplers to confirm a unit is sampling within ± 3% of its nominal air flow rate and ensure accurate microbial counts requires specialist knowledge. Cherwell has over 20 years experience providing this service for its pharmaceutical manufacturing industry customers. This knowledge and experience is now further enhanced by Cherwell’s extended ISO9001 registration. Offering service, repair and calibration of all SAS units within the UK at Cherwell’s own manufacturing and service site in Bicester ensures a highly responsive service with minimal downtime for customers.

“The benefit of extending the scope of our ISO9001 registration to include the service and calibration of our microbial air samplers is that it formalises our systems and procedures within a framework,” said Andy Whittard, Managing Director at Cherwell. “It also reiterates our commitment to quality and continual improvement by improving consistency, methods and performance. We also aim to deliver further improvements within the near future by implementing software systems to aid tracking of customer units, reminders, history reporting and creating planned preventative maintenance programs.”

The SAS range of microbial air samplers includes a wide selection of portable handheld units, including the high speed SAS Super 180 with a sampling rate of 180 litres per minute, enabling it to complete a cubic metre of air in under 6 minutes. Standard SAS units use readily available Contact (RODAC) plates, thereby avoiding costly, specialist consumables. An alternative Petri dish version is also available, as are specialist samplers for Isolator cabinet monitoring, compressed air sampling and fixed installation systems for clean room suite monitoring.

www.cherwell-labs.co.uk

Tony has over 20 years experience in intellectual property (IP) management and biotech commercialisation. After training as a virologist he worked in the vaccine industry for several years before joining the IP development company, BTG, where he licensed vaccine related IP worldwide. Tony was a key member of the team that founded Peptide Therapeutics, acquired as Acambis in 2008 by Sanofi Aventis for £280 million. More recently Tony has continued his interest in the commercialisation of biotech as VP Business Development at BioVex, followed by a role as an Executive Director of Phynova, the Oxford based company deriving novel drug candidates from plants.

“We are delighted with this appointment” said Executive Chairman Ken Powell, “Tony brings invaluable commercial experience and expertise and we are looking forward to his contribution to Q Chip’s commercialisation plans”.